Kansas to Korea

Form 8802 Application – Residency Certification

Let me just start by saying that this topic is a HOT MESS. It may be because it is tax related that I automatically had a predetermined attitude that this would be a complicated form to complete, but the 16 page set of directions that go along with it seem to justify my confusion and frustration.

So after I passed my EPIK interview I received an email from my recruiter telling me that I need to apply for a residency certificate to avoid double taxation.This is only applicable to teachers from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, United Kingdom and United States. Candidates from Canada and Ireland and those who resided in Korea for more than 2 years are NOT applicable. For those who cannot apply for this income tax exemption, your income tax (3.3%) will be deducted from your salary. By submitting your residency certificate to your school(employer) in Korea, you will prevent about at least ₩800,000 (per year) of income tax in Korea per year being deducted.

US applicants should request a – Certification of US Tax Residency. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) procedure for requesting a certificate of residency (Form 6166) from the Philadelphia Accounts Management Center is the submission of Form 8802, Application for United States Residency Certification (PDF). Use of the Form 8802 is mandatory.

Much of what you place on the application will be dependent on what intake you are going with and your tax background. The one point I can speak on in a universal sense is the payment and penalties of perjury statement.

I paid the 85 dollar fee via epayment and requested 3 certifications. I went with this option in part because I feel like if your payment is already submitted you can avoid a minimal delay if they wait for your payment in the form of a check to clear. In other words, I feel like the epayment puts you a step ahead. Maybe not. Just my thoughts.

Perjury Statement- “This certification is given under penalties of perjury and to the best of my knowledge and belief, the statements are true, correct, and complete. YOUR FULL NAME (YOUR TAX #) was a U.S. resident within the meaning of Article 4 of the U.S.-Korea treaty (including, in some cases, physical presence in the United States) immediately before entering Korea. The assignment began on DATE and ends on DATE. Article 20 of the U.S.-Korea treaty provides a 2 year exemption from income tax.”

I went ahead and estimated the “DATE” portions seeing as I have yet to receive anything about possible orientation/arrival dates.

Special remarks

Line 7 Calendar year(s) for which certification is requested – Indicate that you are applying for the year in which you will be ARRIVING in Korea. For example, if you are arriving in August, do NOT apply for the coming new year, but instead just go ahead and apply for the current year.

Line 8 8 Tax period(s) on which certification will be based – This may get tricky but stay with me! If you are requesting certification for a tax period for which a tax return is not yet due, enter the four-digit year and two-digit month (YYYYMM) that corresponds to the latest return required to have been filed (including extensions). To apply for 2016, I put 201512 in this box because I have filed my 2015 income taxes.

Once you have signed everything and looked it over one last time, seal it up and send it via mail with a tracking number. There are several mailing addresses, so make sure you sent your application to the corresponding location applicable to you!

This process is known to take around 45 days.There are no channelers for this certification so get on it A👏S👏A👏P👏!

4 thoughts on “Form 8802 Application – Residency Certification”

Hi! I happened to stumble upon this post when googling how to fill out the scary 8802 form and it was super helpful, so thanks! Quick question for you, I’m doing mine kind of late and the electronic payment option allows you to fax it to the IRS – this seems to be the fastest way as you don’t have to worry about shipping. Is there any particular reason you chose to mail it in instead (ie is there some disadvantage of faxing it that I missed)? Thanks, & congrats on getting into EPIK!

Hi Rachel! I went with mail because I have had nightmare experiences with fax machines lol. With mail I had confirmation of the application’s delivery through tracking etc. I think at this point in the game if you feel comfortable, you should go ahead with fax since each day really counts. Best of luck!